Vacaville council to discuss plastic bag ban

VACAVILLE — Council members will discuss Tuesday the drafting of a model ordinance paralleling the plastic bag ban that’s wending its way through the state Legislature.

The agenda item is based upon a March 13 meeting of the City County Coordinating Council – made up of Solano city mayors and the county Board of Supervisors – in which those in attendance heard a presentation by the Solano County Resource Management Office concerning the single-use plastic bag ban proposal in the Legislature.

After the meeting, members directed County Integrated Waste Management staff to work with local jurisdictions to develop proposals to regulate single-use plastic bags and the formulation of a model ordinance for each city.

Among items to be determined for Vacaville is how the ordinance would be administered, monitored and enforced. Any local ordinance adopted before Sept. 1 will be grandfathered in under the new statewide law, should it pass.

If passed,the statewide law will take effect in 2015 for grocery and drug stores, and in 2016 for smaller grocery and convenience stores. In addition to the ban, the bill would create a mandatory minimum 10-cent fee for recycled paper, reusable plastic and compostable bags.

According to county reports, there are 72 varied local ordinances already in place in California that govern single-use plastic bags and who can distribute them and under what circumstances. The reports note that the singe consistent item throughout the ordinances is that businesses are allowed to sell paper or reusable plastic bags to the customer for a price between 5 cents and 25 cents. Profits stay with the business to pay for the cost of the bags.

Open session of the City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. at 650 Main St. A meeting agenda can be found on the city’s website, www.ci.vacaville.ca.us.

Reach Susan Winlow at 427-6955 or [email protected] Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/swinlowdr.

Susan Winlow

Discussion | 2 comments

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The MisterMarch 25, 2014 - 8:50 am

What a load! Bunch of little power-mad dictators on the City Council. What's the next micro-managing dictate on business in Vacaville? Showers in every business to encourage employees to bike to work? Oh yeah, that's already been passed by the Planning Commission. Are you going to start charging the retail stores for every shoplifting they report to cover the cost of police? Are you going to start charging customers a punitive amount when they forget to bring their grubby cloth bags to the store? (Bring your own bags... shoplift all you want!) Vacaville has turned into Fairfield.

tax payerMarch 25, 2014 - 11:09 am

Mister, don't hate on our "quality of life" city council. They have to make the tough decisions like 8.82% cut in pay for city workers while the fire paramedic service is in the red$2.0+ million per year. Fire has done a great job convincing them that the citizens want the "Cadillac plan" of service. The council runs like the state and federal government appeasing their special interest friends.